Sunday, September 23, 2007

Blessed Assurance

Hernan, one of the men in our Bible study, was born and raised in Chile, baptized and raised a Catholic, attending Jesuit schools. I have known him for many years. He is a charming man, outspoken, and inquisitive. The idea that God offers salvation, once and for all, has persistently eluded him. "Why can't Hernan get it?" we ask.

The other night, he made reference to the Council of Trent as we were discussing some topic - I don't remember which. But this morning I was thumbing through the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, and came across the following:

Chapter XII - That a rash presumptuousness in the matter of Predestination is to be avoided.

No one, moreover, so long as he is in this mortal life, ought so far to presume as regards the secret mystery of divine predestination, as to determine for certain that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate; as if it were true, that he that is justified, either can not sin any more, or, if he do sin, that he ought to promise himself an assured repentance; for except by special revelation, it can not be known whom God hath chosen unto himself.

I think I begin to understand the hurdle that has been built before Hernan.